34TH CHAPTER

The Fall of Edom Is a Glimpse of the Lord’s Judgment

1  Come close, you nations, and listen. 

Pay attention, you people. 

The earth, everyone in it, 

the world, and everything on it will listen. 

2  The Lord is angry with all the nations. 

He is furious with all their armies. 

He has claimed them for destruction. 

He has handed them over to be slaughtered. 

3  Their dead bodies will be thrown out. 

A stench will rise from their corpses. 

Mountains will be red with their blood. 

4  All the stars in the sky will rot. 

The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. 

The stars will fall 

like leaves from a grapevine, 

like green figs from a fig tree. 

5  When my sword is covered ⸤with blood⸥ in the heavens, 

it will fall on Edom 

and on the people I’ve claimed for destruction. 

6  The Lord’s sword is covered with blood. 

It is covered with fat, 

with the blood of lambs and goats, 

with the fat of rams’ kidneys. 

The Lord will receive a sacrifice in Bozrah, 

a huge slaughter in the land of Edom. 

7  Wild oxen will be killed with them, 

young bulls along with rams. 

Their land will be drenched with blood. 

Their dust will be covered with fat. 

8  The Lord will have a day of vengeance, 

a year of revenge in defense of Zion. 

9  Edom’s streams will be turned to tar. 

Its soil will be turned to burning sulfur. 

Its land will become blazing tar. 

10  They will not be extinguished day or night, 

and smoke will always go up from them. 

Edom will lie in ruins for generations. 

No one will ever travel through it. 

11  Pelicans and herons will take possession of the land. 

Owls and crows will live there. 

He will stretch the measuring line of chaos 

and the plumb line of destruction over it. 

12  There are no nobles to rule a kingdom. 

All of its princes have disappeared. 

13  Its palaces are covered with thorns. 

Its fortresses have nettles and thistles. 

It will become a home for jackals 

and a place for ostriches. 

14  Hyenas will meet with jackals. 

Male goats will call to their mates. 

Screech owls will rest there 

and find a resting place for themselves. 

15  Owls will make their nests there, lay eggs, and hatch them. 

They will gather their young 

in the shadow of ⸤their wings⸥. 

Vultures also will gather there, 

each one with its mate. 

16  Search the Lord’s book, and read it. 

Not one of these animals will be missing. 

Not one will lack a mate, 

because the Lord has commanded it, 

and his Spirit will gather them together. 

17  He is the one who throws dice for them, 

and his hand divides up ⸤the land⸥ for them with a measuring line. 

They will possess it permanently 

and live there for generations.